The rumblings Henry Cejudo heard about Sean O’Malley‘s UFC 316 training camp is making him confidently pick against him.
After losing his bantamweight title to Merab Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) at UFC 306, O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) will get an opportunity to reclaim his belt when the pair run things back in Saturday’s main event (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
O’Malley entered his first fight against Dvalishvili with a hip injury which later required surgery. Despite the lifestyle changes O’Malley has made ahead of the rematch, Cejudo doesn’t like what he’s heard about his training camp.
“I think the biggest thing with O’Malley is, did he formulate his camp correctly?” Cejudo said on his “Pound 4 Pound” podcast with Kamaru Usman. “There’s a lot of birdies out there. I’m going to say it here on Pound 4 Pound: He’s just working jiu-jitsu. He’s not working his get-ups, his stand-ups. He’s not investing in his camp. He’s not bringing in guys for money. In Arizona, they have big mouths.
“It’s true, it’s 100 percent true. It (money) shouldn’t be (an issue), but to him, he just wants to keep everything – I don’t know, maybe he’s cheap. He just wants to keep everything in house. When you do that, sh*t gets out there. That’s the only reason why I know some of these things. People, listen to me: Bet the house, Merab Dvalishvili via damn decision, 50-45.”
Dvalishvili won the first fight by unanimous decision, where he took O’Malley down six times and controlled him for more than 10 minutes. He is a sizable favorite to retain his title.
